LED Questions: Just How Good Are They At Saving Money and Energy?

With homeowners in the developed world more aware over the current environmental and financial climate, they’ve become more careful on how and just what to spend their money on. Thankfully, there are multiple methods of saving money and energy in the household, ranging from the most basic habit of turning down the thermostat by a degree or two, which apparently saves 573 pounds of yearly carbon emissions, to the newer measure of investing in light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs.

What Are LEDs?

LEDs are the newest entry into the world of consumer lighting, standing out by using a different process of producing light. In fact, the technology in the light-emitting diode is closer to that of a microchip than it is to a traditional light bulb. The diodes are solid-state devices, which electricity flows through in one direction; as power goes into the diode, it creates light.

LEDs are fairly old technology, having been around since the 60s. Only recently have they been viewed as a real, viable replacement to ordinary light bulbs. By far the biggest challenge to buying LEDs is their high cost, which be 20 times than that of an ordinary light bulb. However, proponents of the technology point out that the high initial cost of LEDs are eliminated by the savings LEDs bring to the table—it doesn’t hurt either that LEDs are good for the environment.

How Much Savings Do LEDs Bring?

How much power an LED light bulb will save you, will depend on three things:

Wattage of the LED light bulb

Number of hours used

Electricity rate in your city/state/country

But to give you a short overview on what LEDs can give you, imagine buying a GU10 7-watt LED light bulb, which you’ll use for 12 hours every day, every day of the week. That bulb generates 300 lumens, or about the same brightness of a 40-watt incandescent bulb. You quickly get an idea of just how much power LEDs can save.

Just Good are they for the Environment?

Besides saving you money in the household, LEDs also improve your home’s energy efficiency, and less energy used means fewer carbon emissions. A traditional light bulb converts only 20 percent of all the energy it uses to light—80 percent is wasted heat. In contrast, LEDs do the exact opposite, converting 80 to 90 percent of energy consumed to light.

Another factor that makes LEDs so environmentally friendly is their long lifespan. High quality lED light bulbs can have a lifespan of 30,000 hours. Moreover, when an LED reaches that threshold, it doesn’t burn out, instead, losing only 20 percent of its lighting output or brightness.